Not everything that the transport department cooks up is bad. Indeed some of it is truly good. Last time I spoke to Peter Forsyth about the station car park at an East Lothian Bus Forum he said that picking up the phone to Network Rail had been nothing short of a revelation.
He further revealed that there were far fewer impediments to creating the car park at Foggo’s Yard than previously put about by our local politician’s. Sometime later ELC’s proposals surfaced. I strongly approve.
Click the image below to get the super slippy experience.
Locals and the press are prone to hyperbole when they go on a rant about parking, traffic, temporary lights, or even our lovely new crossings, though I object too mainly on account of their garishness. Mayhem, chaos, anarchy in our sleepy town? Well not really, not even the nightlife reaches such levels, but I thought I would use a provocation to attract attention as I’m not entirely immune from a bit of exaggeration either.
High Street Voice – Dunbar was launched yesterday evening, with a view to any parties interested in getting a Dunbar High Street Residents Association to sign up.
As well as a representative voice, I would like to see the association set up a factoring scheme to facilitate essential residential property maintenance and repairs, namely gutter clearing and inspection. I’d like to see improvements in the street scene and a lot less litter and gunk spread all over the pavements – pubs and takeaways please take note.
There is a plurality of views about what is needed, though, including whether or not trees should be part of the High Street landscape (at least 2 people think this is really bad idea, though they are profoundly misinformed). Maybe there should be great big wheelie bins to dump even more takeaways and rubbish in? Perhaps some eff off ugly modern bus stop infrastructure with built in latrines? Pelican crossings to flash annoyingly through the night? Duluxing or get children to paint the satellite dishes that decorate our Historic High Street facades? Yet even more space for cars?
It did not take Police Scotland long to review traffic warden services, and the plan, entirely expected, is to remove them as a police responsibility, with in all likelihood the local authority taking on the role. If you were paying attention you may have noticed that parking offences were decriminalised in 1997 only 6 years after the Road Traffic Act 1991. This simplification means that the police are no longer required to enforce parking legislation and local councils can either directly or indirectly carry out the enforcement. This move has to be welcomed as it allows the police to focus resources on priority issues, like catching real criminals. That said certain traffic and parking offences are deemed criminal, but I am not sure what dangerous parking actually is. I am sure our local police officers will be telling us pretty soon.
Not everything that the transport department cooks up is bad. Indeed some of it is truly good. Last time I spoke to Peter Forsyth about the station car park at an East Lothian Bus Forum he said that picking up the phone to Network Rail had been nothing short of a revelation.
